What do you think?
Rate this book
Species
Fantasy artist H.R. Giger has turned his creativity to a new movie, Species. The book documents the conception, development and final terrorizing 3D realization of Giger's macabre, otherworldly designs. Included are Giger's original sketches, photos of the film's animatronic puppets and sets, and action stills. 110 photos, 100 in color. 50 line drawings.
86 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
1 person is currently reading
81 people want to read
About the author
H.R. Giger
62 books213 followersHans Ruedi Giger (1940 - 2014) was an Academy Award-winning Swiss painter, sculptor, and set designer best known for his design work on the film Alien.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 19, 2024
A fascinating look into the process behind a flawed but interesting film. I recently re-watched 'Species' and was drawn in, almost more by the idea of what the film might have been, or the bones of a potential film I thought I detected beneath the surface. The nature of the semi-alien Sil, and the loneliness of being an utterly singular being driven by strange minglings of human and inhuman instinct, was fascinating. Also I noticed the six-second long Giger train dream-sequence!
Giger has been mad about trains since he was very young. One of his first art pieces was about a nightmarish train and, after noting that Sil has a single nightmare in this film, while aboard a train, he immediately got totally obsessed and insisted on creating an entire elaborate alien doom-train dream sequence, spending large amounts of his own money and probably driving every model train shop in his home town utterly crazy, before foisting this on the Producers.
I feel like there were two victims in the making of 'Species'; the Producers, who were traumatised by Giger, and Giger, who was traumatised by the Producers.
The resulting film is mid but curious. The translucent 'Sil' puppet/sculpture is absolutely a work of sublime art and I hope someone somewhere is taking very good care of it.
Three stars, not due to poor quality but, like the film, interesting but strange.
Giger has been mad about trains since he was very young. One of his first art pieces was about a nightmarish train and, after noting that Sil has a single nightmare in this film, while aboard a train, he immediately got totally obsessed and insisted on creating an entire elaborate alien doom-train dream sequence, spending large amounts of his own money and probably driving every model train shop in his home town utterly crazy, before foisting this on the Producers.
I feel like there were two victims in the making of 'Species'; the Producers, who were traumatised by Giger, and Giger, who was traumatised by the Producers.
The resulting film is mid but curious. The translucent 'Sil' puppet/sculpture is absolutely a work of sublime art and I hope someone somewhere is taking very good care of it.
Three stars, not due to poor quality but, like the film, interesting but strange.
August 7, 2023
I'm going to watch Species immediately. I think it's odd that Roger Donaldson directed this and Frank Mancuso Jr produced. Sleeping Dogs is a work of art but the rest of Donaldson's career is just reliable fun trashy entertainment. Mancuso Jr is mainly known for his work on the Friday the 13th sequels. What on earth are they doing with Giger's work? It really does make you appreciate Alien more. Really you need an art direction director like Ridley Scott to be brave enough to show off the designs with slow camera work and patient storytelling.
I'm sure Donaldson/Mancuso Jr have probably made a highly gripping and economical movie but on the whole a waste of Giger's design. Probably closer to what Roger Corman would have with Alien had he originally gone ahead with it as planned. Honestly, the train sequence as its drawn here looks an absolute banger and they use it for what 8 seconds in the movie? That's disgraceful! I've always been in awe of HR Giger's designs and hope to one day get my hands on the necronomicon. And what's this about using lots of CG stuff? Get people in fucking suits and stop fucking about. The crew being like oh yeah we want to show the monsters movements as inhuman. I've not seen one they've done but usually I just think when CG is used to capture inhuman movement it's just silly. Human movement is always creepiest I'm afraid and trumps any computer nonsense. It's the proportions and the facial expressions that tend to kill it with CGI. Also, I can't fully comment here without seeing the film but the designs and the film stills differ a little for my liking. They lose the fiery rawness and intricate details. The edges seem too rounded. Where's that punk aesthetic gone? Looks a little goofy.
I always took Giger for a very serious man hard to deal with like Alan Moore, hence the lack of film projects he's worked on and his repeated reports of being disappointed by Hollywood's output of his work. Turns out after reading this I fucking love him. He basically just worships Ridley Scott rips in to everyone else and tears them apart. He just battles the business minded and really cares for the quality at the expense of his finances. Can't believe those bastards in Hollywood were making him pay for so much shit here. They should have been bankrolling him the cheeky shits. What he brings I bet is a million miles better than the film turns out to be. Loved how they were like you're not having the train sequence, so he just built his trail model anyway and made it so good they had to put it in the movie even if it's for 8 seconds. Keep fighting them my man!
Never realised he had a sense of humour too. Was tearing up and laughing reading that when he was trying to help these shits make their movie, his mum was dying and so to cheer up he rented Michael Jackson's Bad and started Moonwalking for her. That bit too when he goes on about those snobby Hollywood xenophobic fuckers criticising his fellow Switzerland's artists and friends by calling them "Giger and the Hobos". His response being "Sounds like a rock band" was killer. What a legend. Fax me all copies of Giger's work immediately.
I'm sure Donaldson/Mancuso Jr have probably made a highly gripping and economical movie but on the whole a waste of Giger's design. Probably closer to what Roger Corman would have with Alien had he originally gone ahead with it as planned. Honestly, the train sequence as its drawn here looks an absolute banger and they use it for what 8 seconds in the movie? That's disgraceful! I've always been in awe of HR Giger's designs and hope to one day get my hands on the necronomicon. And what's this about using lots of CG stuff? Get people in fucking suits and stop fucking about. The crew being like oh yeah we want to show the monsters movements as inhuman. I've not seen one they've done but usually I just think when CG is used to capture inhuman movement it's just silly. Human movement is always creepiest I'm afraid and trumps any computer nonsense. It's the proportions and the facial expressions that tend to kill it with CGI. Also, I can't fully comment here without seeing the film but the designs and the film stills differ a little for my liking. They lose the fiery rawness and intricate details. The edges seem too rounded. Where's that punk aesthetic gone? Looks a little goofy.
I always took Giger for a very serious man hard to deal with like Alan Moore, hence the lack of film projects he's worked on and his repeated reports of being disappointed by Hollywood's output of his work. Turns out after reading this I fucking love him. He basically just worships Ridley Scott rips in to everyone else and tears them apart. He just battles the business minded and really cares for the quality at the expense of his finances. Can't believe those bastards in Hollywood were making him pay for so much shit here. They should have been bankrolling him the cheeky shits. What he brings I bet is a million miles better than the film turns out to be. Loved how they were like you're not having the train sequence, so he just built his trail model anyway and made it so good they had to put it in the movie even if it's for 8 seconds. Keep fighting them my man!
Never realised he had a sense of humour too. Was tearing up and laughing reading that when he was trying to help these shits make their movie, his mum was dying and so to cheer up he rented Michael Jackson's Bad and started Moonwalking for her. That bit too when he goes on about those snobby Hollywood xenophobic fuckers criticising his fellow Switzerland's artists and friends by calling them "Giger and the Hobos". His response being "Sounds like a rock band" was killer. What a legend. Fax me all copies of Giger's work immediately.
August 9, 2023
I'm going to watch Species immediately. I think it's odd that Roger Donaldson directed this and Frank Mancuso Jr produced. Sleeping Dogs is a work of art but the rest of Donaldson's career is just reliable fun trashy entertainment. Mancuso Jr is mainly known for his work on the Friday the 13th sequels. What on earth are they doing with Giger's work? It really does make you appreciate Alien more. Really you need an art direction director like Ridley Scott to be brave enough to show off the designs with slow camera work and patient storytelling.
I'm sure Donaldson/Mancuso Jr have probably made a highly gripping and economical movie but on the whole a waste of Giger's design. Probably closer to what Roger Corman would have with Alien had he originally gone ahead with it as planned. Honestly, the train sequence as its drawn here looks an absolute banger and they use it for what 8 seconds in the movie? That's disgraceful! I've always been in awe of HR Giger's designs and hope to one day get my hands on the necronomicon. And what's this about using lots of CG stuff? Get people in fucking suits and stop fucking about. The crew being like oh yeah we want to show the monsters movements as inhuman. I've not seen one they've done but usually I just think when CG is used to capture inhuman movement it's just silly. Human movement is always creepiest I'm afraid and trumps any computer nonsense. It's the proportions and the facial expressions that tend to kill it with CGI. Also, I can't fully comment here without seeing the film but the designs and the film stills differ a little for my liking. They lose the fiery rawness and intricate details. The edges seem too rounded. Where's that punk aesthetic gone? Looks a little goofy.
I always took Giger for a very serious man hard to deal with like Alan Moore, hence the lack of film projects he's worked on and his repeated reports of being disappointed by Hollywood's output of his work. Turns out after reading this I fucking love him. He basically just worships Ridley Scott rips in to everyone else and tears them apart. He just battles the business minded and really cares for the quality at the expense of his finances. Can't believe those bastards in Hollywood were making him pay for so much shit here. They should have been bankrolling him the cheeky shits. What he brings I bet is a million miles better than the film turns out to be. Loved how they were like you're not having the train sequence, so he just built his trail model anyway and made it so good they had to put it in the movie even if it's for 8 seconds. Keep fighting them my man!
Never realised he had a sense of humour too. Was tearing up and laughing reading that when he was trying to help these shits make their movie, his mum was dying and so to cheer up he rented Michael Jackson's Bad and started Moonwalking for her. That bit too when he goes on about those snobby Hollywood xenophobic fuckers criticising his fellow Switzerland's artists and friends by calling them "Giger and the Hobos". His response being "Sounds like a rock band" was killer. What a legend. Fax me all copies of Giger's work immediately.
I'm sure Donaldson/Mancuso Jr have probably made a highly gripping and economical movie but on the whole a waste of Giger's design. Probably closer to what Roger Corman would have with Alien had he originally gone ahead with it as planned. Honestly, the train sequence as its drawn here looks an absolute banger and they use it for what 8 seconds in the movie? That's disgraceful! I've always been in awe of HR Giger's designs and hope to one day get my hands on the necronomicon. And what's this about using lots of CG stuff? Get people in fucking suits and stop fucking about. The crew being like oh yeah we want to show the monsters movements as inhuman. I've not seen one they've done but usually I just think when CG is used to capture inhuman movement it's just silly. Human movement is always creepiest I'm afraid and trumps any computer nonsense. It's the proportions and the facial expressions that tend to kill it with CGI. Also, I can't fully comment here without seeing the film but the designs and the film stills differ a little for my liking. They lose the fiery rawness and intricate details. The edges seem too rounded. Where's that punk aesthetic gone? Looks a little goofy.
I always took Giger for a very serious man hard to deal with like Alan Moore, hence the lack of film projects he's worked on and his repeated reports of being disappointed by Hollywood's output of his work. Turns out after reading this I fucking love him. He basically just worships Ridley Scott rips in to everyone else and tears them apart. He just battles the business minded and really cares for the quality at the expense of his finances. Can't believe those bastards in Hollywood were making him pay for so much shit here. They should have been bankrolling him the cheeky shits. What he brings I bet is a million miles better than the film turns out to be. Loved how they were like you're not having the train sequence, so he just built his trail model anyway and made it so good they had to put it in the movie even if it's for 8 seconds. Keep fighting them my man!
Never realised he had a sense of humour too. Was tearing up and laughing reading that when he was trying to help these shits make their movie, his mum was dying and so to cheer up he rented Michael Jackson's Bad and started Moonwalking for her. That bit too when he goes on about those snobby Hollywood xenophobic fuckers criticising his fellow Switzerland's artists and friends by calling them "Giger and the Hobos". His response being "Sounds like a rock band" was killer. What a legend. Fax me all copies of Giger's work immediately.
April 30, 2023
The book is great documenting all the production process of Species creature Sil and all the ups and downs of its creation. Full of sketches and photos, the creation process is shown from head to toe. As a note, in the texts by Giger, you can feel his growing frustration with Hollywood's way of doing things and their obsession with profit over quality and creative process
Read
January 12, 2010something worth looking at
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews